Garden Work in October 



THE experienced gardener and en- 

 thusiastic amateur always finds 

 this season from now until 

 the ground freezes a busy time of the 

 year. It is also the time to take stock 

 and strike a balance sheet like the care- 

 ful merchant, showing our gains and 

 losses, our trials and triumphs, to re- 

 flect on the experience of the past sea- 

 son, to correct mistakes and to profit 

 on the whole by resolving to secure 

 greater rewards next year and to begin 

 now. 



WHAT TO PLANT 



Every garden should have beds or 

 clumps of paeonies, phlox, foxglove, and 

 Canterbury bells, as well as shrubbery 

 and a rose bed or border. We cannot 

 ever get the soil too rich for anything, 

 and particularly for our rose bed and 

 tulip and other bulb borders. What 

 applies to one, applies to all. 



CLIMBING ROSES 



For climbing roses, where planted near 

 the house, the soil, which is invariably 

 poor, should be removed to a depth of 

 eighteen or twenty-four inches and 

 twenty-four inches square and filled with 

 the best fertilized earth. Plant your rose 

 bush in it. Be careful never to put 

 strong manure near the roots. Either 

 put it deeply beneath them and covered 

 with soil or mulched on top. In plant- 

 ing spread the roots out singly and have 

 ihe hole deep enough to plant the bush 

 well down. The rose should never be 

 planted shallow. 



You are often told about firming the 

 soil. There are many reasons for it. 

 Whether it is forest trees or crocus bulbs 

 tread the soil firmly. The foot is a bet- 

 ter gardener than the hand. The action 

 presses the soil close to the roots, keep- 

 ing it moist — it excludes the air and 

 supports the roots so as to prevent the 

 plant swaying with the wind. 



Cut the rose branches back to a foot, 

 no lower. This allows the tops to hold 

 the stray litter or mulch placed on 

 them. It also allows for winter killing 

 back an inch or two and when the plant 

 is pruned back, as it should be for to 

 two or three buds, it will be properly 

 pruned. 



Rose beds may be any shape that taste 

 or convenience suggest, but preferably on 

 narrow beds, which permit close watch 

 and care. A bed five feet permits two 

 rows of hybrid perpetual down the centre 

 two feet apart between rows and plants, 

 and a row on the outside of tea roses. 



THE HERBACEOUS BEDS 



Fall permits the division and replant- 

 ing of your herbaceous beds. Many 

 kinds have the habit of spreading by 

 layers. With many kinds a herbaceous 

 border should be reset every three or 



J. McPherson Ross, Toronto, Ont. 



four years, if not oftener, with the pos- 

 sible exception of lilies and paeonias. 



Those having conservatories or green- 

 houses will be getting in cuttings of 

 plants for propagating ; such as coleus, 

 verbenas and all other tender plants ; also 

 repotting and wintering of garden favor- 

 ites. Oleanders, hydrangeas, and other 

 broad-leaved evergreens not wanted for 

 indoor ornaments may be easily wintered 

 in cool cellars or by digging a pit deep 

 enough to receive the tops and covering 

 over with a glass sash or boards, mat- 

 ting, and so forth, sufficient to keep out 

 very severe frost. These deep garden pits 

 are the favorite method in the middle 

 states for wintering palms, fuchsias, and 

 plants of a like tenderness. 



In the vegetable garden the storing 

 and sowing of the season's crops must 

 be attended to. There are always some 

 seeds that have ripened to be gathered 

 and placed in paper bags for next 

 spring's sowing, such as beans, peas, 

 and corn. Leave your cabbage, carrots, 

 and beets till the last thing before hard 

 frost, when they may be lifted and stor- 

 ed in a pit or cool cellar. 



Every well appointed vegetable gar- 

 den should have an asparagus, rhubarb, 

 parsley, and mushroom bed. Aspara- 

 gus is so easily cultivated, there is no 



excuse for not having a bed when there 

 is room to plant one. A bed thirty by 

 five would give sufficient of this useful 

 plant to supply the tastes of an ordinary 

 sized family. Many cultivators go to 

 great trouble to prepare a bed for this 

 plant, and as it is a permanent thing 

 they are quite justified in this work. 

 Select a situation that is well drained 

 and dig it at kast two spades in depth. 

 This gives you a deep trench in which 

 you can fill six inches of good rich man- 

 ure, bones, and any other enriching lit- 

 ter which, if it does not decay rap'dly, 

 serves the excellent purpose of drainage 

 and keeping the soil loose and moist. 

 When the bed is prepared procure two 

 hundred strong two or three year old 

 plants from the nursery. This is suffi- 

 cient to plant the sized bed I have men- 

 tioned, making three rows eighteen 

 inches apart and plants six inches more 

 apart. Dig out each row by the garden 

 line a foot deep._ Against the bank place 

 your plant, spreading the roots evenly 

 out, having the pips or crowns at least 

 three to four inches beneath the surface. 

 Fill in the soil and tread firmly, levelling 

 it nicely and covering all with a mulch 

 of three inches of old manure. Have a 

 neat path on each side. Allow the plants 

 to grow the first year their full strength 



A Bed of Aster* as Grown by W. A. Greenslade, Peterboro, Ont. 



233 



